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I have recently been working with HJT logs and the HJT team to fix some bugs and get rid of some adware/spyware on my computer. However, I fear that I screwed something up that I shouldn't have.

While trying to install a program for my daughter, I got the error message:

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\AUTOEXEC.NT. The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

There is a 'close' button and an 'ignore' button. But no matter which you choose the application ends.

I went to Microsoft's website support and searched the problem. It tells me that that message means I have a missing or corrupt file (it listed 3 possibilites) and gave me direction on how to fix it. I'm supposed to put my Windows 2000 server or 2003 server cd into my cd drive. However, I don't have one!! I only have the XP cd which came with my computer. I put IT in and followed the directions given:

START, RUN <cmd>

expand d:\i386\autoexec.nt c:\windows\system32\autoexec.nt

BUT, I get an error message saying it cannot open the d:\i386 file.

So how do I fix these files??
Any help would be greatly appreciated as I have a very impatient 8 and 6 year old waiting to try this 'stupid' game that mommy can't get running! ARGH!

Ok, first of all, when you ran HJT, do you know what version that you were running, and did you have it in it's own directory? Or were you just running it from the zip file?

HJT makes backups, and if you didn't run it from a zip file, it may be possible to recover the deleted files.

Open HJT, click on config (lower right), and then click on backups (top right). When you do that, hopefully a list of files will be there. By highlighting each line, and then clicking restore, it will reverse any changes that you made. Once you get those restored, then post up your log in the HJT forum and let one of our experts take a look at it for you.

A HJT team member has been helping me so hopefully I haven't done anything too bad. I looked at my back up file and don't see anything there that even remotely refers to my missing/corrupt files. But then again, I am not an expert. I'll check with the team member who's been helping me.

What I would do is restore all of them, and get back with whomever was helping you, explain what happened, and why everything looks the same. It's possible that whomever was helping you made a mistake... we try to be perfect, but we just can't all of the time...